Drop formation at submerged nozzles: Comparison of aqueous dispersed and organic dispersed cases for TBP-dodecane and nitric acid system

Abstract

Understanding the phenomena of formation of single drops is necessary to understand the hydrodynamics in solvent extraction equipment which are used for separation of nuclear materials. In this work, the phenomena of aqueous phase and organic phase drop formation at submerged nozzles are compared by conducting experiments with 30%TBP (v/v) in dodecane as the organic phase and nitric acid as the aqueous phase. Two different nozzles and three different nitric acid concentrations are used. For each nozzle and nitric acid concentration, velocity of the dispersed phase is varied. Drops of aqueous phase formed at downward oriented nozzles submerged in organic phase are observed to be smaller than the drops of organic phase formed at upward oriented nozzles submerged in aqueous phase. Correlations to estimate drop diameter are proposed. Keywords: Dodecane, Drop formation, Nozzle, Nuclear fuel cycle, Solvent extraction, TBP